'The Americans' Is Not Doomed Just Yet

Today in showbiz news: DVR might save FX's new spy drama but not Fox's The Following, Nicolas Cage listens to his agent, and yet another show about Danish murder has been adapted for the American market.

Last week we heard that the ratings for the second episode of FX's Cold War spy drama The Americanswere really not good, potentially suggesting that the show was in for a rocky road to renewal. But now a few days later, because of the modern age we live in, things are looking sunnier. When adjusted to factor in DVR viewing, the viewership numbers grow by 58 percent, putting the total at a far more respectable 3.11 million. So maybe this isn't exactly Wednesday night appointment viewing, but people are still interested in watching the show. And maybe The Americans can hobble along like that for longer than a season? Sure, advertisers probably won't be too keen on buying ads during a show that most people watch with their fingers on the fast-forward button, but they might figure something out. If for no one else but Keri Russell, let's hope that's true. [Deadline]

Moving the opposite way down the ratings chart, Fox's gruesomely bad serial killer show The Following slipped 17 percent from the week previous, dropping to 7.7 million people. That's a good deal off from the premiere's 10.4 million, so it seems that interest in the show may be waning. Of course it's possible that people have decided to watch it on demand or on DVR instead of live — those numbers haven't been figured out just yet — but as of now, The Following is losing, y'know, followers. Which makes us feel bad for Kevin Bacon, of course, because Kevin Bacon is great. Who doesn't like Kevin Bacon? But the show is really bad, like very dumb and bad, so it's hard to say that some great injustice is happening. This isn't Freaks & Geeks. It isn't even Prime Suspect. This is a bad show with quickly dwindling viewership. Ideally that's how these things should go. [Entertainment Weekly]

Warlock with a bad agent Nicolas Cage has signed on to star in a movie called Tokarev, whose plot is described thusly: "a former crook trying to find his daughter’s kidnappers and avoid falling back into his past." Aha. So it's basically Taken, just with a crook instead of a spy and Nicolas Cage instead of Liam Neeson. Is that why Nicolas Cage agreed to do this? "What's the movie called??" he yelled over the loud drum music filling his house. "Tokarev!" said his agent. "Tookener? Like Taken? I'll do it!" Then the drum music stopped and all the furniture crashed back down to the floor and Nicolas signed the papers right then and there. "Tookering. I like it," he said, clapping his hands, adding "Hachachacha." [Deadline]

Some more positive news for FX. They've decided to go ahead and pick up the detective series The Bridge, which is based on the very popular Danish murder mystery show. Diane Kruger plays a cop on the American side of the border, while Demian Bichir is her counterpart on the other side. Together they try to hunt down a serial killer. Kruger's character apparently has some kind of disorder on the autism spectrum that makes her very blunt and off-putting, but good at her job. So that could be... annoying. FX is so hit or miss. Sometimes their stuff is credibly textured and smart, like Justified, and sometimes it's like, well, The Americans, silly soapiness existing where grain and nuance should instead. That said, we're definitely curious to hear how this turns out. And if nothing else, we can be grateful for this show for bringing Matthew Lillard back into our lives once more. Yes, he's in the cast. This new post-Descendants Lillard is a busy guy! Now someone go track down Skeet Ulrich and see if he's O.K. [The Hollywood Reporter]

Here is a very strange clip of a very strange upcoming movie called The Flying Machine. No sense in explaining it. You just need to watch it. Watch. Do it.

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.

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